Through the end of the Chargers’ current lease in 2020, the team has a window of opportunity each year, from Feb. 1 to May 1, to move out of Qualcomm Stadium in Mission Valley and play elsewhere. All the team must do is inform the city of San Diego it’s leaving and pay an early-termination fee.

This year, that payment would have been $54.6 million. In 2011, it drops substantially, to $25.8 million, and then it would continue to decrease by roughly $2 million a year through 2020, when the payment would be $3.4 million.

I asked Fabiani Tuesday via e-mail: “Will you commit today to not pulling the trigger between Feb and May 2011?”

He replied: “we will address that issue in due course, but not today when whatever we say is likely to get lost in the confusion that inevitably occurs after an issue like this breaks.”

In a phone interview, Fabiani, who has spearheaded the team's search for a new stadium since 2002, repeatedly stressed the importance of a public vote on any proposal that might develop regarding a downtown San Diego stadium. Whether or not such a vote would be required, Fabiani said it's important the team pursues one.

Here's everything he said: "We’ve always believed that a vote gives the project a public mandate that it might not otherwise have. We've always believed also that a vote is going to happen one way or another because if it's not put on the ballot by the proponents it will be put on the ballot somehow by the opponents. So one way or the other we've always believed there would be a vote and if there's a vote, we've always believed that we should be the proactive party and put it on the ballot ourselves rather than allow opponents to craft something and put it on the ballot themselves."

"We owe the city an analysis of the site," Fabiani said. "Can we build a stadium on a small site? Can the small site host Super Bowls? We owe the city a determination of how much if any assistance from the NFL will be available under a new G3 program (which has funded stadium construction elsewhere but is now depleted)."